Dust to dust
by Ri2
Summary: When Thanos snapped his fingers, half the universe ceased to be. That includes more than the people just in movies. A brief look at how some of the players in the other branches of the MCU were affected by the power of Infinity. (Tragicomic because it's the only way I don't burst into tears.)
1. Only ashes remain

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me.

…

When Fitz's hibernation capsule opened, he fully expected to be greeted by the alien robot Enoch, decades in the future, ready to enact their plan to save his friends and get everyone back to the past. He did not expect the person greeting him to instead be Jemma, who burst into tears of joy, kissed him full on the mouth, and then hugged him so tight he was sure he could feel his vertebrae cracking. "Jemma? What… What are you doing here? I thought-"

"It's a long story," Daisy (and what was she doing here?) Spoke up, a fond smile on her face and tears running down her cheeks. "And we'll explain everything later. All you need to know now is we're still the present, and everything… Everything worked out. Well… Almost everything." She choked back a sob. "God, it's good to see you alive and well again."

Fitz was very confused, and had no compunctions with saying as much. "I'm very confused," he said, noting that Jemma was still hugging him (not that he was complaining), and that, along with Daisy, Mack, Yo-Yo, Enoch and several other agents were surrounding him, and it looked like they were no longer in Enoch's ship, but in what appeared to be in the bay of a modified Zephyr. "But… But it's good to see all of you again. Especially you, Jemma," he said, kissing the woman he loved. "But… Where's Coulson and May?"

At that, everyone's faces fell. "That… Well, that's part of what I meant by 'almost' everything," Daisy said sadly.

Fitz frowned. "Well, that doesn't sound good-"

Jemma gasped. "Fitz, your hand!"

Fitz blinked. "My hand? What about-" And that's when he noticed that one of his hands was gone, and the rest of his arm was following suit, turning into dust and crumbling away. "Oh. Oh, that cannot be good."

"What's happening? What the hell's going on?!" Mack demanded angrily, the other agents, staring in horror.

"Unknown," Enoch said calmly. "But it appears to be affecting myself as well," he observed, looking down his body, which was also starting to turn to dust.

Mack grunted and stumbled. Yo-Yo caught him, and both of them stared in disbelief as his body began to disintegrate as well. "No… NO! This can't happen! This isn't what she said would happen!"

"We changed the future, Yo-Yo," Mack whispered in horror, watching his hand crumble right before his eyes. "I don't think whatever she told you matters anymore."

"Jemma I… I don't feel so good…" Fitz moaned as more and more of his body turned to dust.

"Nononononono! Fitz, Fitz, stay with me! Don't go! You can't go! I just lost you, I can't lose you AGAIN!" Jemma pleaded desperately.

"I'm not sure… You have a choice in the matter…" Fitz said apologetically.

"Enoch, you're a 32,000 year old alien robot! You have to know some way to stop this!" Daisy desperately pleaded with the android as couple of the other agents cried out and started to disintegrate.

"Regrettably," Enoch said as the disintegration reached his head. "I do not." And then he was gone.

Sobbing, Yo-Yo was on the floor, desperately clutching what was left of Mack to her chest in her mechanical hands. "Mack, please, PLEASE… Don't leave me…you're all I've got left…"

"Yo-yo…Elena, I-" Whatever Mack had been about to say was lost forever, as he fell into a pile of dust, staining her shirt and pants. Elina stared for a moment, speechless, at the space where he'd just been, her mechanical hands quivering. Then, with a howl of grief, she started to cry.

She wasn't the only one. "Fitz, Fitz, come on, don't go," Jemma desperately pleaded as more and more of Fitz crumbled away. "No matter what the universe has thrown at us, we've survived, be it getting trapped at the bottom of the ocean, or stranded on different planets, or even scattered across time, we've always found each other again! You even DIED, and I still found you again! After all that, you can't go! The universe can't let this happen!"

"Starting to think… The universe doesn't want us… To be together…" Fitz whispered as more and more of him ceased to be.

"I don't care! _I can't lose you again_!" Jemma shrieked, trying to kiss him one last time.…

Only to kiss thin air as the last of Fitz crumbled away into nothingness. She stared into space, trembling, before throwing back her head and unleashing a wail of boundless anguish and despair which filled the entire vessel with her sorrow as, once again, the fates conspired to separate her from the man she loved, possibly forever.

Daisy, one of the few agent still standing, took in all this with a helpless and despondent look on her face, having no idea what to do now, or how they could possibly bounce back from this. "Coulson… What do I do now?" She whispered, tears in her eyes.

Abruptly, Piper poked her head in to the room. "Hey guys, I don't mean to alarm you, but Davis just turned to dust before my eyes, and I'm hoping one of you knows how to fly us home or else we're stuck here, and also, I thought I heard what was either screams of anguish and despair or some alien horror that snuck onto the ship and-" She paused, taking in the tableau of shocked, distraught agents before her, standing or crouching over piles of dust. "… I guess it wasn't just Davis then."

…

On the beaches of Tahiti (it's a magical place), Phil Coulson stared, stunned, at the pile of dust right beside him. "No," he whispered. "That… That wasn't…" He began to tremble. "That's… That's not fair. We _literally_ saved the world. We changed the future. That's not… You weren't…"

He started crying. "It was supposed to be me. It was… It was supposed to be _me_ …"

…

The Inhuman immigrants from the abandoned moon city of Attilan stared in disbelief at the podium where the Royal family had been standing just a moment ago, giving another speech about how this was a new era and a bright start for all of them, and everything would be different for them from now on, but they would still be leading them for the foreseeable future because they were objectively better than everyone and they were very sorry about that but that's just how things were, and then had abruptly turned to dust before their eyes. The only survivor was a confused Lockjaw, sniffing the pile of dust that had once been his mistress Crystal, only to sneeze and send all the dust flying.

After moment, the Inhumans and their human hosts in the vicinity started cheering. (Except for Louise, who'd been secretly in love with Medusa for some reason, and was crying.)

…

On the moon, in the abandoned city of Attilan, there was a bunker that had become the prison of the allegedly mad Maximus, who had been sealed there by his brother Black Bolt in an act of 'mercy.' The bunker was Maximus' prison no longer, not because he'd escaped or because he turned to dust like half the population of the universe, but because he'd killed himself out of despair mere days after his imprisonment had begun. But rest assured, if he had been aware of what happened to his brother and the rest of his family, he would've laughed ecstatically at the irony of it all, even as the effects of Thanos's wish began to work on him as well.

…

Agent Peggy Carter was immune to the effects of Thanos' finger snap due to already being dead and buried.

Her granddaughter was not so lucky.

…

"Hello?" Matt Murdock called. "Sister Maggie?"

There was no response. Just a moment ago, he'd heard several gasps, screams, and cries of alarm. His hypersensitive hearing was picking up more sounds of panic from outside as cars crashed and people yelled in terror. Something about… Mass disappearances?

Matt's nostrils flared. Something was very wrong. The smells of sweat and breath he usually associated with other people, the sounds of heart beats and breathing, the presence of humanity which he'd grown so accustomed to sensing all around him ever since the accident that robbed him of his vision, felt… Lessened, somehow. As if many of the people in the clinic had just up and disappeared without warning.

"What, did the rapture happen or something?" He asked half-jokingly, unaware of how correct he was. "Well, if it did, that would explain why nothing happened to me. I go around the city dressed like a devil, after all." He thought he'd heard mention of another alien ship appearing in the sky earlier that day. Maybe there'd been some sort of mass abduction? Whatever was going on, he needed to get to the bottom of it, see if the people he cared about had been taken as well. He'd been lying around long enough, it was time for him to get to work.

Nodding to himself, he pulled himself – – not without some effort, he was still somewhat injured from having pretty much the entirety of Midland Circle dropped on him – – out of bed and made his way for the door, wondering as he did so why he thought he could taste so much dust in the air.

…

Jessica Jones was totally unaware about half the population of Earth disappearing at the time it happened because she was passed out drunk. When she finally came to and found out what happened, and how many people she actually gave a crap about were among the vanished, she went out and got herself even more drunk, all the while wishing she had been taken as well.

…

Luke Cage rolled his eyes as yet another terrified hoodlum desperately opened fire at him. "Look, son," he said sternly, putting his hands on his hips as the frightened youth just kept unloading bullet after bullet into his torso, damaging his shirt but, as per usual, doing no damage to his body. "I thought this sort of thing would be common knowledge by now, but I'm kind of bulletproof. All kids like you are doing when you try to shoot me is making yourselves look like idiots and forcing me to waste money on new clothes. So why don't you put that gun down and we can talk about-" He paused, feeling unusual. He looked down and noticed that he was disintegrating. His eyes widened in disbelief. "Sweet Christmas-"

And he was gone. The punk who had been wasting ammunition futilely trying to kill the hero of Harlem stared at the pile of dust in disbelief, then at his gun, and then at his equally astonished friends. A slow grin came to his face, and he pointed the gun at the leader of his gang. "I think you best bow down, son, because I'm the nigga who just killed Luke-"

And then he disintegrated as well, the gun clattering into the pile of dust that was all that was left of him.

The rest of the gang stared at the pile of dust for a long while. Finally, the leader said, "Okay, nobody touch that gun until we get it consecrated by a priest or something, it's obviously super cursed." His subordinates nodded in solemn agreement.

…

Once again, Danny Rand was fighting for his life. However, instead of street thugs or hired goons or evil immortal ninjas, this time it was against Davos, his best friend and surrogate brother from K'un L'un. "Davos, I don't understand, why are we fighting?!" Danny demanded, blocking and countering each of his former friend's furious punches and kicks, hesitant to unleash his full power against his old comrade.

"Because you _failed_ , Danny," Davos snarled as he and Danny dueled across the rooftop, his minions keeping Danny's sword-slinging girlfriend Colleen at bay so she couldn't help. "You failed me! You failed everyone! You failed our home! K'un L'un is _gone_ , because you weren't there to protect it like you were supposed to!"

Danny faltered at this. "Davos-"

Davos took advantage of the opening to deliver a staggering blow to Danny's face, nearly knocking him over. Danny quickly regained his footing and raised his arms to fend off Davos' next flurry of attacks. "The elders were wrong to choose you, Danny! The mantle of Iron Fist should be mine! You are not worthy! You were _never_ worthy!"

"I _am_ worthy!" Danny snapped. "I am the immortal weapon, Iron Fist!" He clenched his fist, drawing upon his chi to channel it into his hand as he had so many times before. His right fist began to glow…

Only for the light to wink out a second later. A second after that, his body started turning to dust. "What the… Davos! What have you done?!" Danny cried in horror and alarm.

Davos drew back, looking equally mystified. "I do not know what is happening, Danny, but this is not of my doing." A cruel smile formed on his face. "Perhaps Shou-Lao has finally realized he was in error, and is withdrawing his blessings from you."

Seeing what was happening to her boyfriend, Colleen's eyes widened. "DANNY!" She broke off from the goons she was fighting and rushed over to Danny's side as he collapsed to the ground.

The minions started after her, only for Davos to wave them off. "Leave them. We are done here." He turned and walked away, leaving his old friend to die. "Farewell, Danny. I hope that in death you will face justice for what your dereliction of duty has cost us in life."

As Davos and his henchmen departed, the crumbling Danny struggled to reach a disintegrating hand up towards Colleen's cheek. "Colleen… I…"

And then he was no more. Colleen started crying, unaware that all over the city, all over the _universe_ , countless other men and women and others were also mourning the sudden, shocking loss of the people they loved.

…

When Thanos snapped his fingers, Frank Castle was in Curtis' veteran support group. As several members of the group slowly began to turn to dust, many of the veterans had the expected reactions of shock and terror, uttering cries for help and screams of fright, but others were quiet. They smiled and closed their eyes in quiet acceptance, a look of utter relief on their face. As bit by bit he lost more and more sensation in his body, Frank realized that same look was on his face as well.

As Curtis collapsed to the ground in a pile of dust, only his prosthetic left behind, Frank smiled and closed his eyes. Finally, it was over.

He was going home.

…

The members of PRIDE stared blankly at the pile of dust where their enigmatic leader, Jonah, had been about to explain the next phase of his even more enigmatic and inscrutable plan to them all. "Was… Was that supposed to happen?" Dale Yorke asked after a moment.

"Somehow I doubt the next stage of his plan involved turning himself into dust," Catherine Wilder said dryly.

"Actually, given how completely unfathomable Jonah and his plans are, I wouldn't put it past him," Stacy, Dale's wife, pointed out. "Plus, it's not like he's human. Maybe whatever this is is the next stage of his life cycle or whatever, and any minute now, he'll regenerate from the ashes like the Phoenix?"

They waited a moment. Jonah failed to spontaneously regenerate from the ashes like a Phoenix. "Okay, maybe not."

"Leslie, has he ever done this before?" Robert Minoru asked the de facto leader of their group whenever Jonah wasn't around.

"How should I know?" Leslie Dean snapped, staring in alarm at the pile of dust.

"Well, you know him better than any of us," Janet Stein pointed out.

"In more ways than one," Jeffrey, Catherine's husband, muttered.

Leslie scowled at them all. "No, he's never do anything like this before. Whenever he runs low on life force, he turns into an old man, not… This. Did any of you do this?" She asked sharply, glaring at everyone in the room.

"It wasn't me," Tina Minoru said quickly as everyone else quickly shook their heads. "Although I'd love to take credit for it. I wasn't even touching my staff."

"Maybe this happened because he hasn't been able to get any sacrifices lately?" Catherine suggested. "Maybe whatever he's been doing to keep himself alive for however long he's lived finally ran out?"

"Dale and I can analyze that dust," Stacy offered. "Maybe figure out what happened, see if there's a way to reverse it…"

"Do we really need to, though?" Robert asked. When everyone looked him in surprise, he pointed out, "I mean, he just disintegrated in front of us. For all we know he's actually dead. And if he's dead, do we… Actually have to be in a hurry to try and bring him back?"

Janet gasped, eyes wide. "If he's dead, then… Then we're finally free…"

"No more PRIDE," Dale said excitedly. "No more having to do whatever some creepy guy we've been ritualistically sacrificing people to for years wants. No more having to do some kind of excavation which might destroy the entire city. No more having to worry for the lives of our children!"

Stacy gasped, an eager look on her face. "We can finally see the kids again! And try to find some way to convince them we aren't horrible irredeemable monsters and that it's safe to come home!"

Tina frowned contemplatively. "That… Would be nice… Leslie?"

Leslie looked at the pile of dust for a moment. Then she sighed. "Whatever Jonah was up to, I… I don't think it was in anyone's best interests. Maybe… Maybe this is for the best." She looked at the others. "Let's get our kids home."

Jeffrey pulled out his phone. "I'll make some calls. With any luck, the kids will be back home by tonight, and then… Well, then we can see if there's any way to salvage our relationship…"

"Oh, I hope they're all right," Janet said emphatically, wringing her hands. "I've been so worried about them!"

"Our kids are strong," Catherine said confidently. "I'm sure they're fine."

…

Old Lace the deinonychus sniffed the large pile of dust on the ground before her in confusion, sneezing and blowing some of it away. She did not understand. Where had Alpha gone, and Alpha's clutchmate, and the rest of Alpha's pack? They had been here one minute, the next, they were… Not.

She scratched her snout, sneezing again as more of the dust got in her nostrils, and sat down to wait. She hoped they would be back soon. It was almost feeding time, and she was looking forward to hearing more of Alpha's singing. It always made her feel nice inside.

…

"Wow," Deadpool said with a whistle. "I really dodged a bullet, huh?"

"Wade, sweetie, who are you talking to?" Vanessa groaned on the bed beside him.

"Nobody, babe, this isn't canon. Go back to sleep," Deadpool said sweetly.

"Oh. Okay," Vanessa said, going back to sleep. She did not turn to dust, and neither did he.

Deadpool smiled and waved to you. "Th-th-th-th-that's all, folks!"


	2. Excelsior

In memoriam.

...

The old man stared helplessly at his trembling hands as, bit by bit, they crumbled to nothingness. "But," he whispered, staring up at the Watcher looming over him with tears in his eyes. "I have so many more stories to tell."

Uatu regarded the old man solemnly, but said nothing. He, too, was starting to disappear.

The old man squeezed his eyes shut as more and more of him disintegrated. "I don't want to go. I don't-"

And then the old man was no more.

* * *

Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Joan greeted the old man with open arms. "Welcome home, old friend."

And Stan Lee smiled. "Excelsior!"


	3. You can't fight fate

Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson, the latest incarnation of the Divine Pairing, recurring guardians of New Orleans, were truly a study in opposites. One male, one female. One black, one white. One from a wealthy background forced to live in a church to hide from the police for a crime he didn't commit, one starting out poor and living in the same church but now finding her future back on track. One with power over darkness, one with power over light. One who could evoke fears, one who could inspire hope. Yin and Yang. Cloak and Dagger.

And as the two of them met again in the church so much of their complicated relationship had revolved around, exulting in the fact that they had saved the city and taken down the evil Roxxon Corporation, in far-off Wakanda, the Mad Titan Thanos snapped his fingers, and another way the two of them differed swiftly became evident: one was alive, and the other was not.

And as screams of anguish and despair echoed throughout the city, and sirens and frantic emergency broadcasts filled the air, the last person in the church stared at the pile of ash where their partner had once been in disbelief, slowly realizing that they had been fools to think that their cycle would be any different from the others, that they could save the city without one of them being forced to give up their life.

Destiny can never be denied.


End file.
